Pop Culture

Yoko Ono was one of the 20th Century’s most polarizing figures— an edge-cutting conceptual artist maligned for capturing the heart of the Beatles’ John Lennon and daring to establish a musical union with him.With the publication of veteran author David Sheff’s new biography, Yoko, we are fully enlightened about her extraordinary life journey, all 92

If you find yourself wondering at any point during Alex Scharfman’s Grand-Guignol fantasy satire Death of a Unicorn, “Wait, how come there are unicorns in the Canadian Rockies which nobody has seen before?” then this is not the film for you. However, if some part of you is thinking, “I hope those vile ultra-wealthy despoilers

Refrains of the Day, Vol. 2 Pidgins Lexical Records 4 April 2025 In 2023, the Mexico City-based duo Pidgins released Refrains of the Day, Vol. 1, with a mission to “transform the oral and rhythmic methods of traditional trance rituals by phasing metric, melodic, and rhetorical phrases”.Furthermore, by using the clichés of corporate jargon as

Black Country New Road immediately won over the hearts of many a music critic with For the First Time, an angular album from a band that dazzled us with their unexpected fluency in both the language of jagged post-punk and the idiosyncratic, colorful chatter of free jazz. If their debut didn’t nab you, well, 2022’s

Sam Wilkes is not on TikTok, and that’s OK. Shortly before speaking to the Los Angeles-based bassist and avant-jazz figurehead, I did a quick search on the video-sharing app to see what people were posting about him, and outside of his records coming up on lists of recommendations for chilled-out records, one guy was out

The way songwriter, singer, and cellist Ollella describes the flux of daily events on her latest album, Antifragile, humanizes the randomness of the events that shape the world. The record’s title comes from writer and teacher Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s influential 2012 book Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, which continues the Lebanese-born thinker’s theories on

Congolese band Kin’gongolo Kiniata’s name is a Lingala-language reference to the sounds of metal oil barrels being moved down the streets during the power cuts that marked 2000s Kinshasa. The group translates it as “the crushing sound”. In some ways, it’s apt; their dense grooves and bold sounds make for a hefty blend. All the

Eric Puchner’s new novel, Dream State, follows a group of friends, Charlie, Garrett, and Charlie’s fiancée Cece, from their college days to the end of their long lives. The story opens with Cece staying in Charlie’s parents’ home in Montana to make wedding preparations while Charlie remains with his medical practice in California. On a

It’s not all that surprising that Salif Keita’s 2018 farewell album Un Autre Blanc was not the end of his recording career. After all, as Keita himself has explained over the years, music is his life, a path for which he gave up his standing in Mandinka royalty, a mode of expression through which he

In 2010, Sleigh Bells’ debut album Treats sliced clean through the neck of several tired and corny indie trends like a cartoon katana set ablaze, then wrote its sole demand in its victims’ blood: LOUDER. The LP remains singular 15 years after the fact, stuffed to the brim with crunchy, destroyed beats blown into the

In Paul Thomas Anderson‘s melodramatic masterpiece Magnolia, more than one character utters the phrase, “We may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us.” This could be the thesis of the Ophelias’ latest and best record, Spring Grove. The press release proclaims that this collection contains “zero songs about break-ups”, somewhat

Seafaring tales of gruesome revenge and underwater redemption mark a double feature of silent melodramas on Blu-ray from Flicker Alley. Behind the Door / Below the Surface combines two silent films directed by the forgotten Irvin V. Willat and starring Hobart Bosworth, an actor-producer of tremendous importance in the development of the Hollywood industry. Although

New York writer Rosie Schaap moved to the small County Antrim coastal town of Glenarm in 2019. Her 2024 memoir of this relocation, The Slow Road North, is peppered with blunt observations about the natives of Northern Ireland. The women in this seaside town – and others like it across the province – get their

“It’s a rainy day in Los Angeles,” Dean Wareham says, looking away at the start of our interview. “People get very excited when it rains here. Or afraid. They’re like, ‘Oh, be careful. Be careful out there driving.’” This brief exchange captures the spirit of Wareham: observational, reflective, wry, sincere, and with a sensibility attuned

Karen Shakhnazarov’s In the Moscow Slums (2013), a peculiar and topsy-turvy murder mystery from Russia, is based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1890 novelThe Sign of Four but interprets its source material from an entirely separate universe. It’s a loose adaptation, as it also interpolates the works of writer Vladimir Gilyarovsky. This doesn’t exactly hijack Doyle’s

Canadian vocalist Cold Specks is returning to the spotlight after a seven-year hiatus, and Light for the Midnight showcases an artist thirsty for the spotlight. Compared to I Predict a Graceful Expulsion and Neuroplasticity, Cold Specks‘ newest release is mournful, suggesting that the climate has utterly changed the artist in the intervening years. “I have

Asked in 2016 to name his favorite fictional hero or villain, comic-book auteur/ novelist/ philosopher Alan Moore said, “I’m afraid I’m rather dubious about the whole concept of heroes and villains, and feel that there are probably more useful and less simplistic groupings of complex human personalities that we could come up with if we

Michael Malone Tattoo Regrets After Nuggets Firing??? Artist Offers Cover-Up!!! Published April 9, 2025 12:30 AM PDT If Michael Malone is having regrets over his Nuggets tattoo now that the team unceremoniously fired him, the man who put the ink on the coach’s body tells TMZ Sports he’s down to cover it up. The former

Mike Delevante’s September Days is the kind of album that sneaks up on the listener. Like the month referred to in the title song, the music’s allure lies in its delicate mix between what was and what happens. September exists on the cusp. It’s when the heat of summer and the coolness of fall meet;

Critic’s Rating: 3.75 / 5.0 3.75 It took June two and a half years on that packed train to get to Alaska. OK, not so much, but it took that long for the show to return, so we can joke about it. But here we are. It’s The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6 premiere day, the

What’s that you hear? A dental drill? Is that Vocaloid Damon Albarn giggling? Is this vibe heading towards “Woody Woodpecker” or an “ayahuasca retreat?”But most often, you’ll ask: Have I heard this sample before? Maybe you have, perhaps you haven’t, but that’s beside the point. DJ Koze thrives on a sense of déjà vu, reshaping

For Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller, better known as the rock-pop duo Sleigh Bells, their new album does not reflect the times they live in: it’s a revolt against them. “I know personally for me, January 2025 has come with a lot of turbulence,” Krauss said. “There’s a lot of disturbing things happening in our

After sweeping the award season, including winning Best Picture at the Oscars, Anora is now streaming on … Disney+. Sean Baker produced, wrote, directed, and editedthe smallindependent film, which centers on the everyday experiences of a sex worker. Itnow shares a digital platform with Mickey Mouse. Platform capitalism can be as discombobulating and dizzying as

Hüma Utku’s Dracones begins by locating its listeners in deep space, or perhaps deep waters: we are floating, drifting, surrounded by otherworldly drones and echoes. We hear cosmic resonances–alien life or whalesong?–that morph from hums to howls to cries and back over layers of vibrational haze. Voices are distorted, cello strings groan, and an electromagnetic

In 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered as the world’s first feature-length animated film. Audiences watched the Evil Queen descend into her dungeon and return altered: with stiff fingers, misshapen joints, and a stooped posture. The animation lingers on her metamorphosis, showing symptoms closely resembling rheumatoid arthritis—part of a visual tradition rooted in

The strong pull of the avant-garde on extreme metal is substantial in this edition, as can be seen from the presence of two excellent specimens from I, Voidhanger. Labyrinthine Heirs and the Overmold approach this in different ways. The first is plunged into Ved Buens Ende’s dissonant lineage, while the latter combines death metal with

Get ready for an extraordinary adventure like never before! 🚀 I’m excited to announce the launch of my latest comic novel, Golden King, brought to you by Stevie Kinchen and Stevie Kinchen LLC Power Dog Comics! ✨ Join the amazing Xavier D. Williams Jr. on his transformation into the Golden King, a symbol of hope

At MelBet, we understand that winning a sports bet is more than simply picking the winner of a match. The skill lies in knowing how to time your bets to give yourself the best chance of success. Live betting offers real-time excitement every second, while pre-match planning equals strategy and control. Both styles have their

Game streaming is an integral part of the gaming industry today, transforming the experience, marketing, and production of games. Twitch and YouTube Live have established healthy communities in which players interact, share experiences, and contribute to shaping the overall gaming culture. As the business continues to grow, issues surround the establishment of community, mental well-being,

Fust is a band from Durham, North Carolina that started out as the songwriting project of Aaron Dowdy. Before shifting to a live group, Dowdy home-recorded and self-released several EPs on Bandcamp between 2017 and 2018; they’re no longer available on the platform, but you can revisit that era of the band via Songs of the