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Goon Turns 10

I still have my songbook from the day Tobias Jesso Jr. taught piano lessons at South By Southwest. It was March 20, 2015, just three days after Jesso released Goon — his first and only album, which turns 10 years old today. Jesso was the star of a Tumblr-sponsored event at

xWeaponx – “Everybody Breaks”

The Louisville straight-edge hardcore band xWeaponx haven’t released a lot of music — just a 2022 demo and a 2023 split with World Of Pleasure — but all of their songs make me want to pick someone up by his ankles and swing him into a tree trunk. They’ve got an absolute banger

Lunar Vacation – “Lights Off”

On paper, the dreamy Atlanta rockers Lunar Vacation’s new song “Lights Off” looks like the band’s country move. It’s a mostly-acoustic shuffle with harmonicas and slide guitars, after all. But Lunar Vacation take those elements and do something radically different with those

SXSW Changing Its Music Programming Strategy In 2026

South By Southwest launched in the 1980s as a music showcase, a Southern companion to New York City’s New Music Seminar. But over the decades, the event has ballooned into a multi-disciplinary conference involving tech, film, comedy, and more, to the point that music started to

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Announce 2025 Theater Tour

Ball-knowers have never stopped being tuned into the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but the band has been enjoying a resurgence of public interest thanks to “Maps” going mega-viral on TikTok. Now, after returning to the stage in 2023 in support of comeback album Cool It Down , the band has

Orville Peck Unmasks For Cabaret On Broadway

The mask has always been a huge part of Orville Peck’s presentation and mystique. When Peck, a former indie rocker, debuted his queer country persona with his 2019 debut album Pony , he kept his face hidden behind a kind of fringed Lone Ranger mask. The mask has been through a

Playboi Carti Brings Music To Rolling Loud

Last Friday Playboi Carti finally dropped Music , his oft-delayed follow-up to 2020’s Whole Lotta Red . The rollout was a little messy: The album didn’t drop at midnight ET as initially promised, a couple of the song titles were changed after its release, and the album cover

Denis Leary Has A Pretty Good Michael Stipe Story

Denis Leary doesn’t like R.E.M.’s “Shiny Happy People.” He proclaimed as much way back in 1992, the year after the Out Of Time single came out, when he did an MTV spot based on his standup routine poking fun at the state of rock ‘n’ roll. “R.E.M. ‘Shiiiiiny haaaaapy people’…