Music

Speedy Ortiz paid tribute to Liz Phair by covering her “gorgeous mystery rock song.” “Blood Keeper” is an outtake from Phair’s 1998 LP Whitechocolatespaceegg. Speedy Ortiz stick close to the spirit of the original, building from dispassionate verses to a feisty chorus buttressed by distorted electric guitars: “I’m obsessed, I’m …

Recorded on the quick by Bob Dylan’s former backing musicians in New York and L.A., but spiritually located in an unglamorous Catskills basement, The Band’s 1968 debut is a loose record, casual by design. That’s exactly why stoners, scholars, scruff lords and tambourine freaks keep returning to Music From Big …

To celebrate what would have been Michael Jackson‘s 60th birthday, the King of Pop’s estate recruited producer Mark Ronson to craft the “Diamonds Are Invincible” remix. The five-minute track seamlessly weaves together a handful of Jackson’s biggest hits, including “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” “Billie Jean,” “Smooth Criminal,” “The Way You …

Toronto native Jessie Reyez is a showstopper. At an otherwise lackluster MTV VMAs, the 27-year-old singer-songwriter held the star-studded crowd captive that night with a saccharine performance of her 2018 single, “Apple Juice” — and in denim overalls, no less. “Everybody was like, “It’s your first time here, how do …

How do you pay tribute to a true original? That’s the question at the heart of Six Encomiums for Cecil Taylor, a fascinating new album — produced by avant-garde mastermind John Zorn — on which six adventurous jazz pianists honor Taylor, the perennially radical, school-unto-himself dynamo of the keys who …

Folk duo the Milk Carton Kids (otherwise known as Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan) continue their embrace of the full band sound that distinguishes their new album, All the Things That I Did and All the Things That I Didn’t Do, from previous efforts. To accentuate that sound, the pair …

“Wanna try a hard one?” Hop Along have been rehearsing in a windowless basement in southern New Jersey for most of a late July afternoon, and Frances Quinlan is doing her best to keep her bandmates and herself motivated. Tomorrow at 8 a.m. sharp, they’ll pile into a van for …

This spring, the Eaux Claires festival – founded by Aaron Dessner of The National and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver – made a startling announcement: It would not share any details of its lineup ahead of time. “It’s intentional as a way to get out of the headliners’ arm race,” …

Canadian rapper k-os returned with his first new song in three years on Friday, a breezy, tongue-in-cheek single titled “No Bucks.” k-os released albums at a steady clip between 2002 and 2015, earning a pair of platinum certifications in Canada and a Grammy nomination Stateside for Best Dance Recording. But …

Aminé, the Portland rapper best known for his 2016 sleeper hit “Caroline,” has a bone to pick with how rappers classify their albums. In the past few years, rappers releasing new music have often drawn distinctions between what is an album versus what is a mixtape (or, in Drake’s case, …