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(07/19/24 4:00am)
At Pasadena’s Re:SET Concert Series in the summer of 2023, an effortlessly cool Clairo said in between hits of her vape: “this is the last time we’re going to be performing for a while” to a sea of gasps. Her sophomore record Sling, released in July 2021, embraced a stripped–down, lyric–driven version of her art, which laid a gracious backdrop to grapple with heavy topics like objectification, depression, and motherhood. She cloistered herself, and, with Jack Antonoff, made a faint yet enduring dent in the COVID–19 pandemic–indie canon.
(05/03/24 4:00am)
Art has been an act of resistance throughout the ongoing war in Gaza. As the war has martyred poets, scholars, and artists, there is an exigence to preserve Palestine’s rich cultural legacy of art and scholarship in order to bear testament to its existence. A rallying cry, seared in the public consciousness, came in Refaat Alareer’s poem “If I Must Die,” which gained prominent attention online after he was killed on December 7th by an Israeli airstrike. His haunting stanzas foretell a harrowing prophecy, professing “If I must die / you must live / to tell my story [...] If I must die / let it bring hope / let it be a tale.”
(04/03/24 4:00am)
Anticipation is a collective experience everyone in the room shares as I peer over the balcony, looking at both the crowd in the pit, and also the band on stage. Noise pop encroaching on shoegaze, the songs that play are less about the lyrics and instead hinge on components that build the atmosphere. People sway, but are otherwise static, and I can’t hear anything but the band; an experience I had not been privy to when I’d previously frequented concerts at The Fonda Theatre. I can’t make out much of the lyrics, and most people around me aren’t singing. Looking at the legions of teenagers underneath me, the audience is hypnotized by the dreamy visuals that complement the ambient sound.
(03/15/24 2:49am)
Early in the morning of June 16, 1915, professor Scott Nearing received notice about his dismissal from Penn. “As the term of your appointment as assistant professor of economics for 1914–1915 is about to expire,” disclosed the letter from the Provost, “I am directed by the trustees of the University of Pennsylvania to inform you that it will not be renewed."
(10/06/23 1:00pm)
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then celebrity impersonation is a lifelong devotional. Career impersonators—from Elvis officiants for elopers in Vegas to washed up cover bands performing to senile audiences—are often disparaged as the runts of the entertainment industry.
(09/15/23 4:42am)
Mitski is nothing if not a viscerally enigmatic American poet. On stage, her venereal movements evoke a character that is unlike Mitski herself: soft–spoken and impenetrable. Slated to retire after Be the Cowboy, she surprised fans with her 2022 album Laurel Hell, as well as several songs for soundtracks. But her new record could be the first time she’s been making music for her own sake in a while: “I renegotiated my contract with my label, and decided to keep making records. Thank you so much for your patience and support while I found my way here. I love you!” she wrote to fans in a newsletter.
(03/29/23 12:00pm)
Hot girl summer came early thanks to Miss Kali Uchis. Her third studio album—Red Moon in Venus, released on March 3—is classically her: sultry and airy vocals, stocked with the most relevant features in the industry, such as Omar Apollo, Summer Walker, and her boyfriend Don Toliver. Isolation traditionalists fear not—Red Moon in Venus takes after her revolutionary debut album. She doesn’t shy away from her highly feminine and spiritually sexy powers, which has effectively altered her listeners, colloquially called Kuchis. Multiple TikTok users claim they have glowed up after listening to Uchis, called “the Kali Uchis effect,” with proof to support it.
(02/17/23 2:00pm)
At 7 p.m. on a 30–degree winter night, the bundled up masses of high school and college students could only be going to one place. No, not a frat, a BYO, or a date night, but a house show. Similar to '90s Riot grrrl movement in Olympia or the early 2000s alternative scene in NYC, the house show scene is characteristic of what it means to listen to music in Philly. The scene is underground, and the people who inhabit it are much like me and you, except cooler. They smoke Marlboros, have mullets, and wear tight muscle shirts with wide–legged pants.
(01/20/23 5:00am)
Venturing through the Philadelphia Museum of Art (or any art museum really), you're guaranteed to see a hypersexualized, “ideal” version of the female anatomy: ample bosoms, round bottoms, and long flowing hair. Male physiques at the museum are seldom presented with the same objectification for voyeuristic purposes.
(11/21/22 3:43am)
7:30 p.m. on a Tuesday night, I found myself sitting in a sea of tortoise shell glasses frames and beanies. I have the same conversations over and over with fellow moviegoers. “How do you order?” “I don’t know it’s my first time here” “Me too.” White millennials flocked to the closest “underground” theater they could find in Philadelphia, Studio Movie Grill. Without a doubt, I was the youngest person in the theater. I sat in a sticky seat as everyone else ordered drinks because they were old enough to. Together we watched the coveted documentary, which came out in NYC and LA on Nov. 4 and was released in a small batch throughout the country on Nov. 8.
(11/27/22 9:58pm)
“What exactly do you do for an encore?” You go on tour for the first time in over a decade. Legendary English rock band Pulp, whose songs span topics from perverse and frustrating sex to the UK class system, first split up in 2002 after their release of We Love Life. They reunited in 2011, releasing only one single, “After You.” The last time the band performed was in February of 2013. Now, they are teaming up, once again, to tour 11 cities in Summer 2023.
(11/07/22 3:57am)
Tumblr aficionados rejoice, everyone else beware: The early 2010s are back. The bountiful recent album releases, from The 1975’s Being Funny in a Foreign Language to Carly Rae Jepsen's The Loneliest Time has been a nostalgic reckoning for OG fans, introducing new fans to the indie sleaze glory that was 2013. Arctic Monkeys joined the rankings with the release of The Car, their seventh studio album, on Oct. 21, 2022. But don’t expect AM, though many fans wistfully do. The band is maturing, and the album is self–aware of that fact.
(11/07/22 5:00am)
Eno Williams dances around the stage, her sleeves whirling as her arms reach with steadfast determination toward the disco ball on the ceiling, her feet stepping to the demanding beat. An audience member beckons her closer, and gives her a present in the form of a Philadelphia Phillies jersey. She puts it around her shoulders, signaling the love she’s expressed for her Philadelphia audience all night long. The party on stage is almost rivaled by the absolute riot of a time people are having in the crowd. “I’m gonna show it to my mum!” she proclaims. Williams locks eyes with individuals in the World Cafe Live audience, and dedicates a song to the City of Philadelphia, just one stop of Ibibio Sound Machine's (ISM) Electricity Live Tour on Oct. 20.
(10/31/22 1:57am)
Autumn's Grey Solace is the dream pop duo of your Twilight fantasies. The band effortlessly combines shoegaze’s characteristic lush instrumentals with ethereal wave’s airy vocals, but its mystical imagery sets them apart from other bands in those genres. They released their first album, Within the Depths of a Darkened Forest, in October 2002. On its 20th anniversary, the debut album proves its longevity, making for a perfect background track for your next afternoon stroll.
(10/12/22 12:40am)
When I was 16, I burned my first CD. Rapt to undergo this rite of passage that my fangirl predecessors all experienced, I impatiently sat on the cold wooden floor of my room while Billy Corgan and Mitski smiled down on me with encouragement from my wall. I had no doubt in my mind what would be my first CD: the unattainable self–titled EP by boygenius. I longed to possess that part of “Me and My Dog,” where Phoebe belts accompanied by Lucy's perfect harmony while Julien shreds the guitar: “I dream about it.” Admittedly, I account for half the streams of boygenius’ performance at Brooklyn Steel Pitchfork Live on Nov. 7, 2018. Since then, Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus have earned stardom in their own right as individual artists. Critically acclaimed and adored by cult followings, boygenius is the definition of the famed supergroups of the 20th century.
(10/16/22 9:13pm)
Earlier this year, a debacle among the unlikeliest of foes came about when Neil Young gave Spotify a major ultimatum: him or me. Him being Joe Rogan, the epitome of middle–aged man with a beer belly sitting in a basement making a podcast. Rogan’s wide array of guests on the Joe Rogan Experience have included Elon Musk in the blunt rotation of my nightmares, and Robert Malone, an alleged vaccine scientist turned notorious critic of mRNA vaccines. Young threatened that if Spotify continues to allow Rogan a platform, he would remove his discography from the app.