It is sometimes said that humor is at its best when a country is at its worst. So, in this time of No Kings protests, are we living through a golden age of comedy in America? Humor has always been at the heart of America’s culture wars, but those skirmishes have been more divisive and

Despite not fitting the tropical stereotype often attributed to (and intensely exploited by the Latin music industry, Argentina has always found ways to stand out. Historically known for tango and one of South America’s richest rock legacies (thanks to names like Fito Páez and Soda Stereo), the country is also an inexhaustible source of pop

Swiss label Bongo Joe has been an unstoppable force of cosmopolitan post-punk gems this year, and perhaps no single-artist release encapsulates their 2025 sound more cleanly than 2, the trilingual sophomore release from Yalla Miku. The lineup has shifted since their first album. However, the sonic scope remains very similar, as the group trace their

From synth-pop mimicry to thrash-industrial chaos, Ministry’s four-decade evolution is less a career arc and more a chemical reaction: unstable, volatile, and guided by the dark alchemy of Al Jourgensen. Even the band’s name, “Ministry”, evokes something both political and religious — a morphing symbol suited to whatever Jourgensen needs it to mean at the

English singer Dusty Springfield is best remembered for her blue-eyed soul recordings, especially her masterful Dusty in Memphis (1969) album with her sultry “Son of a Preacher Man”. However, Springfield’s career was much longer and varied than this release. The London chanteuse first achieved stardom in 1960, singing folk pop with her brother Dion and

Patricia Brennan is a master composer and improviser on mallet percussion, and her last album, Breaking Stretch, was a high-arcing highlight of 2024 in jazz. The follow-up, Of the Near and Far, is also one of the best and most exciting albums of this year in creative music. Although Breaking Stretch incorporated subtle electronic elements

Radiance does it again with their new box set, Daiei Gothic Vol. 2. The collection features two films from Tokuzō Tanaka – 1960’s The Demon of Mount Oe and 1969’s The Haunted Castle – and Kimiyoshi Yasuda‘s Ghost of Kasane Swamp from 1970. Together, the three Japanese horror films further secure Daei’s place in film

Begin to experience the music of Charlie Bruber by dropping the needle on the first track of his new record. You’ll likely be pleasantly surprised by the sheer variety of everything that follows. Prized Burden, Burber’s second album, begins with the song “Charlie?”, a spacey, widescreen instrumental soundscape featuring Burber on an Oberheim OB8 synthesizer,

Shooting Star, the new album by Philadelphia-based band Golden Apples, begins and ends with its outlier songs. Opener “Another Grand Offering for the Swine” is a brief dirge that’s over before you’ve even had a chance to decide whether you like it or not. Meanwhile, the closing track, “How Long Must I Stay in This

Finally, there is a chill in the air in the Midwest, and it is Greet Death season. The Flint, Michigan-based band makes perfect music for that time of year when the days get shorter and you pull the hoodies out of the back of the closet. On the first day of winter last year, I

Terry Klein’s fifth studio album, Hill Country Folk Music, offers a moving meditation on aging and memory in intimate and environmental terms. He knows he’s getting older. Youth has passed him by, and the natural world has become a less lovely place, but he’s not old yet, just older, and the despoiled ecology still has

On April Fools’ Day 2014, Caravan Palace arrived in Boston for their first-ever standalone gig in the United States. From the stage of the Paradise Rock Club, singer Zoé Colotis excitedly told the crowd the good news: “We just arrived today. It’s our first gig in the US. So happy to stand around with you