Music Features

Lost tapes, warped vinyl records, and scratched CDs have historically been the relics of hip-hop yore. But now, 404 errors, dead links, and server failures illustrate the erosion of hip-hop’s early online age. The digital marketplace makes music listening more convenient, but things also feel more tenuous: acts like De …

Thirty-five years ago, Steve Jordan got a call from Keith Richards asking him to play drums on a new version of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” that he was creating with Aretha Franklin. “I remembered Charlie Watts saying, ‘If you ever work outside of [the Rolling Stones], Steve Jordan’s your man,’ ” …

Magdalena Bay, the budding Los Angeles indie pop duo, make music that feels both timeless and time-less. Timeless because bandmates Mica Tenenbaum and Matt Lewin have a keen knack for songcraft, and time-less because, in a world where temporality’s been smashed by the internet, Magdalena Bay are there picking up …

Los Angeles-via-Canada singer-songwriter Elissa Mielke hardly shies away from alluding to her deeply religious upbringing on “Kind of Thing,” the first single from her gorgeous Finally EP. Her lyrics more oblique than autobiographical, though, taking on a character who’s “the kind of thing I used to sing about.” “Here I …

New York DJ-producer Uproot Andy and singer Nino Augustine meld buzzing reggaeton and urgent afrobeats in “La Montamos.” It’s one of two Uproot Andy productions included on the compilation SMS for Location, Vol. 4, released earlier this month, which also features Sango, Georgia Anne Muldrow, and Pierre Kwenders. “La Montamos” …

“It’s times like these you learn to live again,” Dave Grohl sang Tuesday night, with clenched emotion, at the beginning of Foo Fighters’ first concert since a global pandemic snuffed out live music last March. He was backed, at first, only by church-like organ chords from keyboardist Rami Jaffee. As …

Joyce Wrice’s Overgrown resembles a fresh breath of air that we all needed to take in 2021. The Southern California singer’s debut album draws on the classic R&B of the late Nineties and early 2000s, showing the range that fans of the genre were accustomed to seeing from artists like …

Last summer, Beck was at loose ends in Los Angeles. “My whole year was canceled, with the shutdowns and everything,” says the singer. “My engineer’s wife was having a baby, so he wasn’t available. I really hadn’t been making much music. My studio had been dark for a year.” Then …

Bronx rapper Drag-On was a key part of the Ruff Ryders rap dynasty in the late Nineties and early 2000s, making many memorable appearances alongside DMX, the Lox, and Eve. As fans around the world mourned DMX after his death at age 50, Drag-On called to share his memories of …

Willa Amai just finished school for the day. She leaves one virtual meeting, with the dean of her high school, for the next,this interview. The 16-year-old shows the webcam her neatly organized, pink daily planner — which seems necessary for a student who’s balancing course work and studio sessions with …